Understanding Accounting
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ACC 300 · Assignment

Company project

Compare one primary company with two peers using their annual financial statements and notes.

Explain the companies' reported results and accounting choices using calculations, filing facts, and Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) guidance. Submit an Excel workbook and a written report in Word or PDF at each stage: the 40-point midpoint and the 70-point final company analysis.

The final-project information has not been finalized. The final-topic information below is preliminary. Final assignment instructions will be posted when they are complete.

Project dates

All deadlines below are in Eastern time in 2026. Submit your work through D2L.

SubmissionDuePoints
Company choicesFriday, October 9, 11:59 p.m.Not graded
Replacements, if requiredWednesday, October 14, 11:59 p.m.Not graded
Midpoint company analysisFriday, October 30, 11:59 p.m.40
Final company analysisSunday, December 13, 11:59 p.m.70
Separate take-home analysisSunday, December 13, 11:59 p.m.30

The 30-point take-home analysis uses supplied company facts and has separate instructions. It is not one of the company-project submissions described below.

Choose your primary company and two peers

Submit only 3 ticker symbols in D2L and identify your primary company. Choose 2 peers in the same industry. Use each company's most recent Form 10-K, prepared under US generally accepted accounting principles (US GAAP), with the same reporting currency.

The filings must include 2 comparable annual income statements, 2 annual cash-flow periods, and 2 balance-sheet dates. The companies' latest annual periods must overlap by at least 9 months. Banks, insurers, investment funds, brokerages, and similar financial institutions are not eligible.

Choose a group that has enough information for both stages. All 3 companies need the required midpoint amounts and information for 5 shared final topics. Include at least 2 Regular reporting topics and at least 1 Specific event or exposure topic.

Check the primary company and both peers together before submitting your choices. Read the shared-topic results for the group.

Green means the saved filing search found the required information. Yellow means the search has not confirmed it; yellow topics do not count toward the required total. A yellow result does not prove that the filing lacks the information. The checker does not submit your choices to D2L.

Read the topic questions before selecting your companies. A reported account balance alone may not provide the disclosures needed for the required comparison.

Midpoint: 40 points

Submit an Excel workbook and a written report in Word or PDF containing 3 written elements. Complete all 3:

  • Explain the primary company's profitability and compare it with both peers in the income analysis.
  • Explain the selected ASC guidance and apply it to a company item in the ASC research and application.
  • Assess reported earnings using operating cash flow and compare all 3 companies in the operating-cash-flow analysis.

Use separate headings for the income analysis, ASC research and application, and operating-cash-flow analysis. Keep financial statements and calculations in the Excel workbook. Include all ASC research in the written report.

The lengths below are suggestions, not required minimums or maximums. Answer every part of each question fully. Answers will be graded for completeness, accuracy, and reasoning rather than word count.

Use your primary company and both peers. Use each company's 2 most recent fiscal years.

Submit
Excel workbook + Word or PDF reportInclude income analysis, ASC research and application, and operating-cash-flow analysis. Submit through D2L.
Company periods
3 companies, 2 fiscal yearsUse the 2 most recent fiscal years.
Due
October 30, 202611:59 p.m. Eastern time

Required report section 1 · Unit 2

Income analysis

Suggested length: 300 to 400 words, excluding tables, calculations, and citations. The ASC research has a separate suggested length.

How did the primary company's reported profitability change over the 2 most recent fiscal years, and how does its most recent-year profitability compare with both peers? Explain how 1 selected ASC research item affects your interpretation of those results.

Complete this calculation work for all 3 companies and both fiscal years:

  • Rebuild gross profit, operating income, and income before income taxes from the reported statement lines.
  • Calculate gross profit rate, operating margin, and net profit margin.
  • Identify the statement lines and expense classifications you use. Explain differences that affect a comparison.

Use the calculations to explain the primary company's profitability change and its comparison with each peer. Choose 1 item from the ASC research menu.

Refer to your ASC research finding when it affects your interpretation of profitability. Give the full explanation in the separate ASC research and application section.

Required report section 2 · ASC research

ASC research and application

Suggested length: 200 to 300 words, excluding tables, calculations, and citations.

Choose 1 item from the approved ASC research menu that appears in your primary company's filing. Answer its fixed research question in this report section:

  • State your selected question and identify the ASC topic, subtopic, section, and paragraph that directly answer it.
  • Explain the accounting guidance in your own words.
  • Identify the company item, its filing note location, and the income-statement subtotal it affects.
  • Apply the guidance to that item and explain how it affects your interpretation of profitability.

Include the ASC question, citations, guidance explanation, and company application in this written-report section. Refer to the research finding in your income analysis without repeating the full explanation.

Required report section 3 · Unit 4

Operating-cash-flow analysis

Suggested length: 350 to 500 words, excluding tables, calculations, and citations.

How does operating cash flow affect your assessment of the primary company's reported earnings over the 2 most recent fiscal years? Compare the primary company with both peers, using the course-defined free-cash-flow measure. Explain whether earnings and operating cash flow move together, differ, or show a mixed pattern. State what the reported cash-flow information does and does not show.

For this project, free cash flow equals net cash provided by operating activities minus cash paid for property, plant, and equipment. It is a course-defined measure, not a US generally accepted accounting principles (US GAAP) subtotal. It may differ from a company's own free-cash-flow measure.

Complete the following cash-flow work:

  • Rebuild the primary company's most recent indirect-method reconciliation from net income to operating cash flow.
  • Identify its 2 largest reconciling adjustments by absolute amount. Classify each as noncash or an operating working-capital change.
  • Calculate the course-defined free cash flow for all 3 companies and both years.
  • Compare net income, operating cash flow, and free cash flow over both years for all 3 companies.

Organize this report section into 3 short parts: your primary-company conclusion, the 2 largest adjustments, and a comparison with each peer plus 1 limit of the filing information. You do not need to estimate customer cash collections.

Prepare the midpoint workbook

Download the midpoint Excel workbook template (.xlsx). Use it for the financial statements and calculations. Submit your written report separately in Word or PDF.

Enter the full balance sheet, income statement, and cash-flow statement for each company. Keep the reported labels, units, periods, and totals. Include the 2 years used in your analysis. Identify the filing and statement locations.

Use a separate tab for each company's balance sheet, income statement, and cash-flow statement. Keep separate tabs for income calculations and cash-flow calculations. You decide how to arrange the calculations and checks within those tabs. Use spreadsheet formulas, not typed calculation results.

The workbook template provides blank work areas. Keep the supplied tab names, and add rows, columns, or extra tabs as needed. Choose the statement labels, line order, classifications, subtotal placement, and formulas yourself.

Complete the company name, period, currency, and units fields on each statement tab. Enter each balance-sheet date and the beginning and ending dates for each income and cash-flow period.

Record assumptions and explain any combined lines or presentation differences that affect your work. A reader must be able to follow a report amount back to its formula and filing source.

The final uses a separate workbook. Instructions will identify which midpoint tabs to copy. Do not add unfinished final calculations to the midpoint submission.

Before you submit the midpoint

  • Attach the editable Excel workbook with financial statements, calculation formulas, and filing locations.
  • Attach 1 Word or PDF report with separate income analysis, ASC research and application, and operating-cash-flow sections.
  • Identify filing locations for amounts and company facts, and exact ASC citations for the accounting guidance.
  • State whether you used an AI tool. If you did, name it and describe its contribution.
  • Check every calculation, source, citation, and conclusion before submitting both files through D2L.

Choose one ASC research item

Required at midpoint

Choose 1 item below that appears in your primary company's filing. The Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) supplies the accounting guidance; the filing supplies the company facts. Include this research in a separate section of your midpoint Word or PDF report. Both the income analysis and the operating-cash-flow analysis are required.

Your research response

Answer the fixed question for your choice. Identify the ASC topic, subtopic, section, and paragraph that directly answer it. Explain the guidance in your own words. Identify the company item, its note location, and the income-statement subtotal it affects. Explain how the item changes your interpretation of profitability.

The questions concern different kinds of guidance. You do not need to use section 25 for every choice. A paragraph is acceptable when it directly answers your selected question.

Stock-based compensation

When does a company recognize compensation cost for goods or services received in a share-based payment transaction?

Restructuring or exit costs

When does a company recognize a liability for an exit or disposal activity?

Foreign-currency transaction gain or loss

When can a foreign-currency transaction gain or loss be excluded from net income?

Derivative gain or loss

How does hedge designation affect the reporting of a change in a derivative's fair value?

Pension or other postretirement cost

Where must a company report service cost and the other components of net periodic benefit cost in the income statement?

Lease cost

What lease costs must a lessee recognize in profit or loss after the commencement date?

Advertising cost

When must advertising costs be expensed?

Income-tax expense or benefit

What measurement basis does ASC require for current and deferred income taxes?

Valuation allowance for deferred tax assets

What evidence does a company consider when deciding whether a valuation allowance for deferred tax assets is needed?

Equity-method income or loss

When does an investor recognize its share of an investee's earnings or losses?

Noncontrolling-interest allocation

How does a consolidated company attribute net income or loss between the parent and noncontrolling interest?

Change in accounting estimate

When does a company account for a change in accounting estimate prospectively?

Midpoint rubric

40 points

The rubric totals 40 points. There are no separate points for copying financial statements. The reliability of your calculations and the quality of your analysis are what will be graded.

CriterionPointsFull-credit work
Income numerical work4Reliable subtotals, margins, formulas, and source-line mapping for all required company-years.
Profitability comparison5Explain the primary company's 2-year profitability pattern and compare it with both peers using the required measures.
ASC research and application6Give an accurate ASC citation and rule, explain the company item, and show how it affects the income analysis.
Client-ready income analysis3Reach a specific, useful conclusion. Explain implications and relevant limits rather than restating amounts or ratios.
Cash-flow numerical work6Correct free-cash-flow calculations for all required company-years and a complete primary-company indirect-method reconciliation.
Earnings, cash-flow, and free-cash-flow comparison5Explain the primary company's 2-year earnings-to-cash pattern and compare it with both peers.
Cash-flow limits and judgment4State what the cash-flow information supports and does not support. Avoid conclusions that the filings cannot establish.
Client-ready cash-flow analysis3Provide a specific, useful conclusion supported by the company's cash-flow information rather than a generic description.
Filing evidence and workpaper traceability4Identify filing locations, assumptions, formulas, and inputs so a reader can check the analysis.
Total40

Different statement labels are acceptable when you correctly connect them to the required calculations. A single incorrect source-line choice receives one deduction under the relevant calculation criterion, not a new deduction for every result using that input.

Write a company-specific analysis that a client or manager can use. Explain what the results mean and where the available information limits your conclusion. Repeating figures or giving a general description of an accounting topic is not enough for full credit.

AI use is allowed. State whether you used a tool, name it, and explain its contribution. Check every calculation, filing fact, ASC citation, and conclusion yourself.

Final: preliminary information

Choose 5 additional topics shared by the primary company and both peers. Choose at least 2 from Regular reporting and at least 1 from Specific event or exposure. Choose the remaining 2 from either group. The required midpoint topics do not count toward the 5.

Each topic becomes a section of the final written report. All 3 companies must have information for the same analysis. For intangible assets, use a category shared by all 3 companies. Loss contingencies and product warranties are separate topics. You may choose both and count each toward the 5 when all 3 companies have the required information. Complete a separate analysis and ASC research for each topic.

For goodwill and long-lived assets, a qualifying event at any 1 of the 3 companies is sufficient. It does not have to occur at the primary company. Complete the common comparison work for all 3; the other 2 do not need a matching event.

Final selection
5 additional topicsThe midpoint analyses do not count.
Planned submission
Final workbook and written reportComplete instructions are still to come.
Due
December 13, 202611:59 p.m. Eastern time

Regular reporting

Choose at least 2 topics.

Specific event or exposure

Choose at least 1 topic.

ASC research for every final topic

Required for all 5

For each selected topic, research the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC).

  1. Research and cite the ASC guidance for the accounting question you select. Explain the rule and apply it to the company's disclosures. A quotation or general policy summary alone is not sufficient.
  2. Use the guidance applicable to the fiscal year you analyze. Check accounting-update disclosures when a rule has changed. Do not assume that newly issued guidance already applies.
  3. Identify filing locations, calculation inputs, assumptions, and limits so a reader can check your work. Do not treat a missing amount as zero or invent a split of a combined amount.
  4. Write a company-specific conclusion about what the accounting and calculations mean. Different business activities or matters do not, by themselves, excuse the required comparison.

Open a topic for its question, calculations, ASC research, and comparison limits.

Revenue and contract balances

Unit 2

Each company needs a specific customer arrangement with immediate and later promises, recognition timing, and related contract-liability amounts. Arrangement types need not be identical.

Customer arrangements

Select a disclosed customer arrangement for each company. Explain which promised goods or services the company provides immediately and which it provides later. Use ASC research to explain why those promises result in revenue at different times. Compare how the arrangements affect reported revenue and contract liabilities, and explain why the companies' liability balances may not support a direct comparison.

ASC research

Research performance obligations, revenue timing, and classification of the related contract liability. Explain and apply the guidance to each selected arrangement.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Select a disclosed customer arrangement at the primary company and both peers. Explain which promised goods or services the company provides immediately and which it provides later.
  • Explain why billing or receiving the full price does not necessarily mean recognizing the full amount as revenue.
  • Use disclosed balances to assess the importance of the deferred portion. Identify the activities each amount covers and explain comparison limits.

Current and noncurrent debt

Unit 3

All 3 companies need debt classification, borrowing terms, a 5-year maturity schedule, and current assets and liabilities. Refinancing or a covenant event is conditional.

Debt classification

How does debt classification affect your comparison of the primary company's short-term financial position with both peers? Explain the relationship between reported current debt and scheduled repayments. Use current ratio and working capital in your comparison, and explain any disclosed refinancing or covenant conditions that affect classification. Research and cite the relevant ASC guidance. Explain how the classification rule applies to each company's disclosed borrowing terms and repayment dates.

ASC research

Research the current and noncurrent classification rule applicable to each company's debt. Apply refinancing, covenant, and waiver guidance when the disclosed facts require it.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Analyze disclosed refinancing, covenant violations, and lender waivers. If refinancing or a waiver affects classification, recalculate current ratio and working capital with that debt treated as current. Label the calculation as a comparison scenario.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Compare current debt and the next 5 years of scheduled repayments for all 3 companies. Identify the obligations each amount includes.
  • Use borrowing terms and repayment dates to explain current and noncurrent classification. Do not merely repeat balance-sheet labels.
  • Calculate current ratio and working capital. Explain how debt classification affects the comparison.

Inventory cost methods and measurement

Unit 5

All 3 need inventory policies and turnover inputs. If any company uses last-in, first-out (LIFO), use the LIFO version. Each LIFO company needs beginning and ending differences from first-in, first-out (FIFO) inventory. Otherwise use the version without LIFO.

Choose 1 version. Completing multiple versions of this topic does not count as multiple topics.

At least 1 company uses LIFO

How do inventory cost methods, subsequent-measurement rules, and business differences affect your comparison of the primary company's inventory with both peers? Apply ASC guidance to the companies' disclosed policies. Use your calculations to explain your conclusions and comparison limits.

ASC research

Research the subsequent-measurement rule applicable to each method. Address different methods within a company separately. ASC 330-10-35-1B applies to methods other than LIFO and retail; ASC 330-10-35-1C applies to LIFO and retail.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Use beginning and ending FIFO-based reserves to restate each LIFO company's inventory and cost of goods sold. Recalculate gross profit rate, turnover, and days. Compare reported and adjusted conclusions across all 3 companies.

None of the companies uses LIFO

How do inventory cost methods, subsequent-measurement rules, and business differences affect your comparison of the primary company's inventory with both peers? Apply ASC guidance to the companies' disclosed policies. Use your calculations to explain your conclusions and comparison limits.

ASC research

Research the applicable subsequent-measurement rule. Connect the rule to each company's disclosed methods and policies.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Calculate disclosed inventory-category shares. Research a meaningful difference in production or sales activities and explain its effect on the comparison.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Identify cost methods and subsequent-measurement policies for all 3 companies.
  • Calculate inventory turnover and days using average inventory. Explain the business and accounting differences that affect comparison.

Property, plant, and equipment: depreciation

Unit 6

All 3 need depreciation policies, useful-life disclosures, matching accumulated balances and annual expense, and asset-return inputs.

Depreciation comparison

How do depreciation methods, useful-life estimates, and differences in asset use affect your comparison of the primary company with both peers? Research and cite the ASC guidance on allocating depreciable cost over an asset's useful life. Apply that guidance to the disclosed policies. Use your calculations to explain the differences and limits of your comparison.

ASC research

Research and apply the cost-allocation rule in ASC 360-10-35-4. Merely listing disclosure requirements does not complete the task.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Explain which differences the filings support and which you cannot attribute to depreciation.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Compare depreciation methods and disclosed useful lives for similar asset categories across all 3 companies.
  • Calculate asset turnover and return on assets using average total assets.
  • Estimate average asset age using ending accumulated depreciation divided by annual depreciation expense. Explain method, asset-mix, acquisition, and disposal limits.

Intangible assets: a shared category

Unit 7

Choose a shared asset category, internal-use software, external-market software, or R&D across all 3 companies. Goodwill is excluded. A shared asset category may have different useful-life classifications.

Choose 1 version. Completing multiple versions of this topic does not count as multiple topics.

Finite- or indefinite-lived asset category

How do useful-life classifications and amortization policies affect your comparison of a shared intangible-asset category across the primary company and both peers? Research and cite the ASC guidance for determining useful life and amortization. Apply it to the disclosed policies. Use your calculations to explain the effects on reported assets and income. Identify what the disclosures do not let you conclude.

ASC research

Research useful-life classification and amortization under ASC 350-30. Apply the guidance to the selected category, not an unrelated intangible.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Select the same type of asset at all 3 companies, such as customer relationships, trademarks, or developed technology. Labels may differ, but the assets must represent comparable rights or benefits.
  2. Compare business use, useful-life classification, disclosed useful lives, and amortization methods. Explain differences between finite and indefinite classifications.
  3. For finite-lived categories, calculate accumulated amortization as a percentage of gross cost and the change in net carrying amount. For indefinite-lived categories, calculate the change in carrying amount and explain disclosed causes.

Internal-use software

When do the companies begin recording software costs as assets rather than expenses? Research and cite the applicable ASC guidance, apply it to their disclosed policies, and explain how capitalization and amortization affect your comparison of assets and income.

ASC research

Research the applicable internal-use software capitalization guidance. Check whether each company adopted ASU 2025-06; do not assume a newly issued rule applies.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Compare beginning and ending net software balances, capitalized additions, and annual amortization. Calculate the change in net carrying amount.

Software developed for sale

How does the point at which software costs qualify for capitalization affect your comparison of the companies? Research and cite the applicable ASC guidance, apply it to their disclosed policies, and explain the effects on assets and income.

ASC research

Research the software scope and capitalization boundary under ASC 985-20. Do not assume every software product or hosted arrangement falls within the same scope.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Compare beginning and ending net software balances, capitalized additions, and annual amortization. Calculate the change in net carrying amount.

Research and development

How do the companies' research and development (R&D) activities and accounting policies affect your comparison of reported income? For each company, select 1 disclosed type of R&D spending. Research and cite the applicable ASC guidance. Explain whether those costs are expensed or capitalized and why, and apply the rule to the disclosed activity. Use your 2-year R&D-to-revenue calculations to compare the companies, and explain what those percentages do not tell you.

ASC research

Research the recognition rule for the selected spending and check its scope. Acquired R&D in a business combination cannot be assessed solely under the ordinary R&D expense default.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Select 1 disclosed spending activity at each company. The activities need not be the same type across all 3.
  2. Calculate R&D as a percentage of revenue for both years. Explain accounting and activity differences and what the percentages do not establish.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Use ASC guidance applicable to the analyzed fiscal year. Check adoption when guidance has changed.
  • Identify category-specific amounts and policies. Do not attribute combined balances, useful lives, or expenses to one category without a disclosed basis.

Allowance for credit losses

Unit 4

All 3 need a comparable receivable category, matching allowances, estimation policies, 2-year percentage inputs, and one latest-year reconciliation. Trade receivables also require DSO inputs.

Comparable receivable category

How do the companies' credit-loss estimates affect your comparison of reported receivables and income? Research and cite the ASC guidance on using historical losses, current conditions, and reasonable forecasts. Apply it to each company's disclosed estimation policy. Use your calculations to explain differences across the primary company and both peers. Identify what you would need to know before concluding that one company faces greater collection risk.

ASC research

Research the expected-credit-loss estimation guidance applicable to the selected receivables and the treatment of write-offs. Check the guidance's scope before applying it.

Calculations and analysis
  1. For trade receivables, calculate days sales outstanding (DSO) for both years and compare its change with the allowance percentage. State a consistent sales and day basis across all 3.
  2. Financing and lease versions do not require DSO. Do not assign a combined financing allowance to leases alone.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Select a comparable receivable category and match its allowance to those receivables.
  • Calculate the allowance as a percentage of gross receivables before the credit-loss allowance for both years.
  • Reconcile the latest year's allowance using disclosed expense, write-offs, recoveries, and other changes. Retain combined labels rather than invent a split.
  • Explain the different effects of recording expense and writing off a receivable. A higher allowance percentage alone does not establish greater risk or a better estimate.

Inventory write-downs and reserves

Unit 5

All 3 use the same version: 2-year reserve balances with matching gross inventory, or 2-year annual losses with related cost of goods sold.

Choose 1 version. Completing multiple versions of this topic does not count as multiple topics.

Inventory valuation reserves

How do disclosed inventory valuation reserves affect your comparison of the primary company's inventory and income with both peers? Research and apply the relevant ASC measurement guidance. Use your 2-year calculations to explain the differences and limits of the comparison.

ASC research

Research the measurement rule applicable to the inventory method and the subsequent cost basis under ASC 330-10-35-14.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Calculate reserve balances as a percentage of inventory before the matching valuation reserve for both years. Explain what a balance does and does not establish about the year's expense.

Annual inventory losses

How do disclosed inventory write-downs affect your comparison of the primary company's inventory and income with both peers? Research and apply the relevant ASC measurement guidance. Use your 2-year calculations to explain the differences and limits of the comparison.

ASC research

Research the measurement rule applicable to the inventory method and the subsequent cost basis under ASC 330-10-35-14.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Calculate annual inventory-loss amounts as a percentage of related cost of goods sold for both years. Identify combined write-offs and reserve provisions and explain the limit.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Identify whether each amount is an ending reserve or an expense for the year. Keep the companies' descriptions of combined amounts.
  • Apply the inventory measurement rule and explain the subsequent cost basis after a write-down.
  • Explain how the amounts affect inventory and income and what prevents a direct numerical comparison.

Goodwill: acquisitions and impairment

Unit 7

Common goodwill balances, total assets, equity, and testing policies at all 3; a complete acquisition or impairment event at any 1 company. The event need not occur at the primary company.

Choose 1 version. Completing multiple versions of this topic does not count as multiple topics.

Acquisition

How does the goodwill recognized in a disclosed acquisition affect your comparison of the primary company with both peers? Research and cite the ASC guidance for measuring acquisition goodwill. Recalculate goodwill from the disclosed acquisition amounts. Explain what management says the goodwill represents, and identify the limits of your comparison.

ASC research

Research acquisition-goodwill measurement under ASC 805-30-30-1 and apply it to the selected acquisition.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Select a qualifying acquisition at any 1 company. Record consideration, identifiable acquired assets, and assumed liabilities. Include noncontrolling and previously held interests when applicable.
  2. Explain the acquisition's contribution to the goodwill change without attributing the whole change to it. Identify a provisional allocation when applicable.

Goodwill impairment

How does a disclosed goodwill impairment affect your comparison of the primary company with both peers? Research and cite the applicable ASC impairment guidance. Apply it to the affected reporting unit, management's disclosed reasons, and the testing approach. Use your calculations to explain the reported effects and what you cannot conclude about remaining goodwill.

ASC research

Research goodwill testing and loss measurement. Apply the guidance to the reporting unit and disclosed testing approach.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Select an impairment at any 1 company. Identify the loss, affected reporting unit, income-statement location, disclosed reasons, and testing approach.
  2. Explain reported effects on goodwill, income, and equity, distinguishing disclosed tax effects. Do not reconstruct undisclosed reporting-unit fair values.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Compare goodwill balances and impairment-testing policies across all 3 companies.
  • Calculate goodwill as a percentage of total assets and equity using aligned dates. Identify zero or negative equity before interpreting the percentage.
  • Explain the differences and limits. No reported impairment does not establish that goodwill is risk-free or that an acquisition succeeded.

Loss contingencies

Unit 3

Each company needs 1 specific disclosed matter and enough treatment and uncertainty information for ASC application. The disputes need not be identical; a general policy alone is insufficient.

Specific loss contingencies

How does each company's accounting for a disclosed loss contingency affect your comparison of reported liabilities, income, and possible additional losses? Research and cite the ASC recognition and disclosure guidance. Apply it to 1 specific matter at each company, and explain what you can and cannot conclude from the disclosures.

ASC research

Research the recognition and disclosure guidance applicable to each selected matter. Apply it to the company's stated treatment and uncertainty.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Use the primary company and both peers. Identify 1 specific matter at each, such as litigation or an environmental claim.
  • Explain each company's stated accounting treatment using ASC guidance. Record disclosed accruals, possible additional losses or ranges, and amounts the company cannot estimate.
  • Different matters do not prevent comparison for this assignment. Compare how each company applies the ASC recognition and disclosure guidance, what it records in liabilities and income, and what possible additional losses remain uncertain. Explain how those differences affect your interpretation of the reported amounts. Simply stating that the matters are different is not sufficient.

Product warranties

Unit 3

All 3 need assurance-warranty policy, a latest-year liability reconciliation, total expense inputs, and an identified revenue denominator. Separately sold service warranties do not qualify.

Assurance-type product warranties

How do the companies' warranty estimates and claims affect your comparison of reported liabilities and income? Research and cite the ASC guidance for recording product-warranty obligations. Apply it to each company's disclosed policy. Use your calculations to explain differences across the primary company and both peers, including warranty terms, product mix, and changes in estimates.

ASC research

Research recording assurance-type warranty obligations and distinguish them from separately sold service warranties. Apply the guidance to the disclosed policy.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Do not count settlements, acquired liabilities, or currency changes as expense. Identify any broader revenue denominator and explain its limitation.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Apply ASC guidance to each company's product-warranty policy. Reconcile the latest year's liability and calculate warranty expense as a percentage of related revenue.
  • Distinguish claims settled, provisions, and estimate changes. Explain warranty terms, product mix, and revenue limits.
  • Use total warranty expense, not just provisions for new warranties. Retain combined accruals and estimate changes and label their contents.

Long-lived assets: impairment and sale

Unit 6

All 3 need asset-return inputs and common comparison information. A complete held-and-used impairment or held-for-sale event at any 1 company is sufficient.

Choose 1 version. Completing multiple versions of this topic does not count as multiple topics.

Either version counts as 1 final topic.

Assets held and used

How does the company's impairment affect your interpretation of its reported income, asset balances, and asset returns? Research the ASC recoverability and loss-measurement guidance, apply it to the disclosed event, and compare the company with both other companies.

ASC research

Research the held-and-used recoverability and loss-measurement model. Explain why it differs from held-for-sale accounting and apply it to the disclosed event.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Identify the affected assets, circumstances, disclosed loss, and statement location. Distinguish current loss from possible later depreciation effects.

Assets held for sale

How does classifying assets as held for sale affect your interpretation of the company's asset balances, income, and asset returns? Research the ASC classification and measurement guidance, apply it to the disclosed sale plan, and compare the company with both other companies.

ASC research

Research held-for-sale classification and measurement. Explain why the model differs from held-and-used accounting and apply it to the sale plan.

Calculations and analysis
  1. Identify the affected assets, sale circumstances, any disclosed loss, and statement location. A held-for-sale event need not include a loss. An undisclosed loss is not zero.

Work for all 3 companies

  • Use asset turnover and return on assets for all 3 companies, with aligned periods and average asset balances.
  • Explain how the event affects interpretation. A ratio change alone does not establish improved or declining operations.
  • The other 2 companies do not need matching events. The event may occur at the primary company or either peer.

Sources and AI use

Identify the filing locations for your numbers and company facts. Use the ASC for the accounting guidance. Keep your formulas and source amounts available so a reader can check your calculations. Distinguish reported facts from your calculations and assumptions.

You may use AI tools. State whether you used one, name the tool, and describe its contribution. You remain responsible for every number, source, ASC citation, and conclusion.

Write an analysis that a client or manager can use. Explain the selected companies' results, make comparisons using verified sources, and state what the available information cannot establish. Your grade is based on the submitted work, regardless of whether you used AI.

See the syllabus for course policies and the schedule for class dates.